From Immigrant Hustler to Real Estate Titan: Rod Khleif’s Psychology of Building & Rebuilding Empires

 

From Immigrant Hustler to Real Estate Titan: Rod Khleif’s Psychology of Building & Rebuilding Empires

 

Guest: From wearing hand-me-downs to owning thousands of doors, Rod Khleif’s real estate journey is one of epic upswings and gut-wrenching falls. He immigrated to the US at 6, faced childhood poverty, and built a real estate empire, only to lose millions in the 2008 crash. But Rod bounced back, fueled by an unshakeable mindset and a deep understanding of psychology’s role in success. Today, he’s a multi-millionaire, podcast host, and mentor, sharing his hard-won wisdom to help others avoid his pitfalls and achieve their own real estate dreams.

 

Big Idea: Real estate success isn’t just about brick and mortar; it’s about mastering the mental game. In this episode, Rod reveals the powerful mindset strategies that helped him climb back from rock bottom, and how anyone can leverage psychology to overcome fear, limiting beliefs, and market downturns. He emphasizes goal setting, decisive action, and resilience as the cornerstones of building and rebuilding real estate empires.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: All right Rod Khleif. Welcome back to the REI Diamond Show. How you doing today?

Rod Khleif: Good buddy. It’s great to see you again man. And It’s so cool to know that you’re right up the street. But what’s really cool, is we’re both wearing the same freaking watch which you know [crosstalk]. We both have these gorgeous Hublot Big Bang watches on. Our favorite brand. And so that was really crazy. It’s the first time that’s ever happened to me. So, very cool. Well it’s great to see you man. Thanks for having me back.

Dan: Yeah we are. Hey you too. So if listeners want to go check out the original episode. I want to say this was in 2021 if I’m not mistaken. But the title was “Making them losing 50 million bucks with Rod Khleif”. And I hate to brand you that, the money-losing guy. Because that’s not who you are and you recover from that. But why don’t you give any listeners who may not have caught that original episode, Rod. Give them a brief rundown and what that looks like, and then how your business is grown today.

Rod: Sure. Well, first of all it sucked, okay. It was no fun at all. Let me say that. But let me back up a little bit down real quick and just give a brief history on me. So, I’m an immigrant. I was born in the Netherlands, wooden shoes and windmills. Immigrated when I was 6, with my brother Albert and My mother’s mancha[?]. Ended up in Denver Colorado where we lived for 30 years. Struggled initially. I wore hand-me-down clothes from the Goodwill and the Salvation Army. We eat expired food, believe it or not. They had a store that sold expired food, drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning. I mean really struggled.

But my mom had an incredible work ethic. So she babysat kids so we would have enough money to eat. And with her babysitting money, she was a bit of an entrepreneur and she’s the reason I got into real estate. Because she used that babysitting money and bought the house across the street from us when I was about 14, for 30 grand. Then when I was 17, she told me she’d made $20,000 in her sleep, it gone up in value. I said, “What? You made 20…”, this is when 20 Grand was a lot of money, okay? And I said, “You met 20 grand and you didn’t do anything?”. Forget College, I’m getting into real estate.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://RodKhleif.com/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Rod Khleif & I Discuss How to:

  • Discover how a single, resolute decision can propel you from observer to active investor.
  • Learn to navigate the fear of the unknown and take that crucial first step in the dark.
  • Reframe fear as an illusion and leverage it for action and a positive mindset.
  • Identify and crush the limiting beliefs holding you back from unleashing your full potential.

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 236 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Elevating Your Life: Unraveling the Journey to Freedom and Fulfillment with Brad Chandler

 

Elevating Your Life: Unraveling the Journey to Freedom and Fulfillment with Brad Chandler

 

Guest: In this episode we speak with Brad Chandler, the driving force behind Express Home Buyers and a true pioneer in the real estate industry. From building a successful company with a formidable SEO presence to a transformative shift in mindset and lifestyle, Brad’s story is nothing short of remarkable. Discover how he overcame limiting beliefs, harnessed the power of hypnosis, and found the keys to happiness and longevity. This episode is a beacon of hope for those seeking not just success in real estate but a holistic approach to well-being and fulfillment.

 

Big Idea: In this episode, our guest Brad shares his personal journey of self-discovery and the tools he developed, such as the Joy Regenerator and hypnosis, to break free from negative patterns. The conversation explores the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, emphasizing that success in real estate and life requires a holistic approach that goes beyond financial achievements.

 

 

    

Dan: Yeah, for sure. It was very exciting. I mean, I’ve seen the Express Homebuyer’s website for a long time. You guys have a very strong SEO presence in a very large number of markets around the country. I assume it’s intentional or not, but there’s a bit of notoriety and a bit of fame around the company itself, and it’s really cool to have someone who has been part of building that company here on the show today.

Brad: Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Dan: So for listeners who don’t know who Express Homebuyer’s or maybe Brad Chandler is, do you want to give an introduction and maybe a reader’s digest version about how you got to where you’re at today?

Brad: Sure. Yeah, I’ve read a book in ninth grade by Robert Allen, who I got the pleasure of finally meeting after 30-something years or 40-something years at a mastermind that I’m involved in. How to buy real estate with no money down when I was in ninth grade and then knew I always want to do real estate because I wanted to make a ton of money.

We’ll get to why in a bit. In 2002, an investor bought my neighbor’s house in Vienna, Virginia, and I went and talked to him and he’s like, yeah, I buy houses at 30% below market and I resell them. I’m like, I must have read that book too long ago because I forgot you could do that. At the time, I just had a newborn son and I decided I was going to do it. I was going to make a company buying houses, but I was working full-time, so I’d come home, spend six days with him, put him to sleep, and that went on for eight long months then. I mean, I was busting my hump and every week that went by, I couldn’t find a deal, but I was going to these meetups and seeing all these deals and I was like, if they can do it, I can do it. In July of 2003, I bought my first house. In July and August, somehow I bought six houses and then October of that year, I went to my boss and said, “I quit”, came home and told my wife at the time I quit. She goes like, “Are you crazy?” I was like, “no, I just started Express Homebuyers. It’ll be fine.” Here we are 20 years later in 4,000 houses and we’re not still married, but it’s been fine.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://www.Facebook.com/BradChandlerCoaching

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Brad Chandler & I Discuss Elevating Your Life:

  • Building a Strong SEO Presence: Strategies and insights for establishing a powerful online presence in the real estate market.
  • Navigating Real Estate Challenges: Brad’s experiences and lessons learned from buying and selling thousands of houses.
  • Overcoming Obstacles in Real Estate: How to persist and thrive in the face of challenges and setbacks.
  • The Power of Networking: The significance of connecting with like-minded individuals and building a supportive community in the real estate industry.
  • Transformative Mindset Shift: Brad’s journey from a traditional real estate approach to a mindset-focused, streamlined business model.

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 235 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Real Estate Uncovered: Building Success and Weathering the Storm with Doug Faron

 

Real Estate Uncovered: Building Success and Weathering the Storm with Doug Faron

 

Guest: Doug’s extensive experience in the real estate industry, combined with his innovative strategies, has made him a sought-after expert in the field. Throughout his career, he has successfully navigated high-growth markets, mastered the art of property management, and achieved remarkable returns on investments. Join us as Doug shares his invaluable insights, practical tips, and the secrets behind his real estate success.

 

Big Idea: In this episode, we sit down with Doug Faron, a highly experienced real estate investor and operator with a remarkable track record in the industry. Doug provides valuable insights into his journey, emphasizing the importance of maintaining family values while building a successful real estate business. He shares his expertise in navigating the real estate market, even during challenging periods, and highlights the key factors that have contributed to his achievements.

 

 

    

 

Dan: Yeah, for sure. When the booking request came through, I was personally most excited about the operator, developer. You guys have a huge background, Shoreham Capital of very large projects. It seems like from all the research that I’ve done, I probably can’t do as much justice on an introduction as you, so why don’t I give you the floor, allow you to give an intro on kind of your career, [inaudible] capital and what the trajectory of you work guys investment strategy looks like today.

Doug: Sure. Perfect. Well, again, thanks for having me and happy to introduce myself and then tell you a little bit about Shoreham Capital. My name is Doug Feron and I’ve spent most of my career on the institutional investment side of the real estate business. I started my career in investment banking. I then went to work in corporate private equity for a number of years and then transitioned after business school to real estate private equity, working with a firm called the CIM group based out in Los Angeles. I spent about 10 years at CIM, had a really great experience and ultimately was a managing director on their investment team and running their East Coast investment practice. But I had shifted from corporate to real estate really looking at one book, being very interested in the asset class and also being interested in trying to do something entrepreneurial.

One day I felt that in real estate there was a much bigger opportunity for that than corporate private equity. So after about 10 years with CIM, I was doing some family events and otherwise decided it was the right time to take a look and looking for a seed to that thesis or a seed for that business. One of the areas I’ve been really interested in at the firm and we’d been working on a white paper on was single-family rental. I had been pursuing that and through a friend was introduced to one of my partners, Nick Zumas, who’s a sizeable home builder in both New York and Florida. In meeting Nick, we sat down and had the opportunity to sort of flush out a business plan to shift a lot of his forward pipeline from for sale to for rent but along the backs of that, build a larger real estate developer operator investor that would do both traditional multi-family, both ground up and value add, alternatives like build to rent single-family rental senior student, and then also still have an allocation for special situations and the background I had of doing different asset classes, debt and equity, wherever the sort, the opportunistic opportunity is.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://ShorehamCapital.com/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Doug Faron & I Discuss Building Success and Weathering the Storm:

  • The foundation and vision of Shoreham Capital.
  • Successfully managing large real estate development projects.
  • Strategies for weathering the storm in a challenging real estate market.
  • Insights into the cost and yield considerations for real estate projects.
  • The importance of location, entitlement risk, and site plan approval.

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 234 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

How to Become a Real Estate Developer with Adam Gilbert

 

Episode: How to Become a Real Estate Developer with Adam Gilbert

 

Guest: Adam Gilbert is the President of The Firm Commercial where he leads a team of agents specializing in commercial real estate sales, leasing, land acquisition, development, government relations, and value added entitlement development deals.

 

Big Idea: Any Real Estate Agent, Developer, or Investor Generates Consistent Income by Positioning themselves to Receive a Continuous Flow of Deals Crossing their Path.  Adam has a unique way of doing this in the realm of commercial real estate, as discussed during this episode.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: Some of my best partners have come through listening this podcast. Maybe you’re the next. Today’s guest is Adam Gilbert, the president of The Firm Commercial, where he leads a team of agents specializing in commercial real estate sales, leasing, land acquisition, development, government relations, and value-added land entitlement development deals. Any real estate agent developer or investor will generate a consistent income through positioning themselves to receive a continuous flow of deals that are coming across their desk. Adam has a unique way of doing this in the realm of commercial real estate as discussed during this episode. And we also dive deep on how to become a real estate developer covering details of a few recent development deals and we also touch on the Palm Springs, California Real Estate market.

So, I was doing some research for our show here and I found that you’ve recently exited your vacation rental business. So, I’d like to begin right at that point if we could, and maybe you could touch on how you built the business, how it operated at scale, and then what was the ultimate reasoning that led you to selling and exiting.

Adam: Sure. So, quick background, I’m born and raised here in Palm Springs, and I left for school. I came back in about 2011, which was an interesting time in the market for a variety of reasons. But that summer, I had stayed in this new thing called an Airbnb in 2011, Washington, DC. We had spent the summer in New York and my wife was like, “We’re going to spend the night in someone’s room at their house? This is crazy.” I’m like, “We did it. This is the future, honey. This is going to be amazing.” And so, when I moved back to Palm Springs, there we have like a long history of vacation, rental properties for 50-60 years, but not on the platform of Airbnb. So, I was one of the ones who got just a couple of condos on the platform and they just started crushing. Absolutely amazing because this whole new marketplace of people were looking for properties on Airbnb. So, it kind of just grew organically. I was like, “Okay. Well, I’ve got a housekeeping service, I’ve got a handyman, I know how to do these reservations, and we just built this business.” By the time 2018 came around, I had 35 full-time properties. We had like, 50 around the time Coachella came. It was a great business. It’s a very labor-intensive business and it takes a lot of time, and it’s holidays and all that kind of stuff. So, at that point in my real estate investing career, it was just a little bit too much. And so, I made a deal with TurnKey, who’s a venture-backed vacation rental company out of Austin, Texas and they were acquiring small companies like mine at the time. I made an exit and focus my attention on other ventures.

Dan: Okay, so was it more of a freedom thing? Or was there some timing and pricing that also made it worthwhile?

Adam: There were a few factors in there. Just the perils of running a business, partners, all that kind of stuff. I think it was more timing. I had to decide. It was that point when I had 35 properties, I would have needed to invest in the business, in terms of employees. I did some calculations, I wasn’t going to make any money again until I got 75 properties, and I’m like, “Okay. Is this what I want to spend my time doing?” So, it’s kind of an 80/20 principle thing of “Where am I going to focus my time to have the best ROI?”

Dan: Got you. So, what’s been the focus of your career? Since 2018, you exited, you jettisoned the responsibilities, which was kind of what I was expecting an answer there. So, what’s been the focus since then?

Adam: Yeah. So, mostly since then, it’s been building of my real estate brokerage, both commercial and residential, here. It’s mostly commercial, but on the residential side, I do specialize in short-term vacation rentals, which the Palm Springs Market is well known for and has been absolutely blasting since COVID. Palm Springs has been a great market since that’s happened and then, I’m also working on my own deals and I have a little niche in value-add entitlement deals and zone changes. And so, I spent a lot of my time kind of doing that and entitlement work.

 

Episode Sponsored by the Deal Machine:

Driving for Dollars Software to Build a Team of Drivers, Manage Routes, & Even Automate Marketing.  Free Access at  http://REIDealMachine.com/

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.TheFirmCommercial.com

 

 

Adam & I Discuss Commercial Real Estate Syndication:

  • Government Relations During Land Development

  • Identifying Value in Underzoned Property

  • Palm Springs California Real Estate Market

  • The Group Any Commercial Real Estate Broker is Wise to Join

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 191 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.